Tabata – there’s a song!

I’m still loving my new gym – though technically I suppose it’s not that new any more – pretty much every session they do something that surprises me and my muscles. The other morning it happened when I was lying on an exercise mat.

‘You’re going to do crunches, followed by tricep kickbacks with a dumbbell,’ says trainer Gary. ‘How many?,’ I replied – this is my standard question, even after they’ve told me because I can’t always take in what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, how many times I’m doing it and how many sets to repeat all in one explanation. ‘Don’t worry about that,’ he said. ‘We’re doing the Tabata Song’

At this point I couldn’t worry about crunches and tricep kickbacks – or that I seemed to have been given a 7kg weight, all I could think was THERE’S A SONG FOR TABATA.

Ah yes, yes, there is…..in fact, there’s entire albums of them online as I discovered when trying to work out exactly which one I’d been working out to. I have failed at that as, frankly, they all sound the same, but I do recall trainer Gary singing ‘Man Up’ at one point so my money is on Everyone Just Man Up – which frankly sounds preferable to doing my workout to the one called Pain is Temporary!

Should you want to make your own Tabata song, here’s the drill. Find some not too fast, nondescript electroey music that lasts roughly four minutes, then, shortly after it starts say 3.2.1…..20 seconds later repeat the 3.2.1 thing. Wait 10 seconds. Do it again….repeat until you run out of music and everyone’s muscles are screaming in pain.!

Should you want to do your own Tabata workout – put on said song. When you hear the 3.2.1 bit, start moving, stop when you hear it again. At this point change position to your second exercise, then when you hear the numbers again do that one until it’s time to stop. Repeat this alternating malarkey until you run out of music and/or your muscles are screaming in pain.

Actually despite how it might sound I did quite like the concept – not least as it meant I didn’t have to count or watch any kind of timer which I liked. It also suited all sorts of exercises – the person in front of me was doing squats with lateral raises, someone else was doing shoulder raises combined with lunges – download enough of the songs and you could do an entire body workout. The only thing I did find was that I tended to time my moves with the music which meant I didn’t actually do quite as many as I perhaps should have done during Tabata which is supposed to be done all out – but there again that could be a good thing considering I still had the rest of my workout to go one part of which saw me pulling a Bulgarian bag up the gym by a battlerope! Sometimes I think they’re just having a laugh!

Oh, and as I’ve now pinched two of their workout ideas in the last few weeks I think it’s only fair to now give them a credit. It’s Elms Personal Fitness who have a couple of branches in Essex. Here’s where to find them if you’re interested.

My name is Helen. And what makes me happy is discovering the newest, strangest or most fun products, studies and ideas in the worlds of diet, fitness and health. I do this all day every day - and some of them make me go 'oooh' ...
* Oooh - I just learned something
* Oooh - that's bonkers
* Oooh - that's fun/innovative/fantastic.
Those are the things you'll find on this blog.